About the Author

IAN DOUGLAS is Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Manchester, England. He gained his BA and BLitt at Balliol College, University of Oxford, and his PhD at the Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. From 1966 to 1971 he was a lecturer in Geography at the University of Hull, and from 1971 to 1978 he was Professor of Geography at the University of New England, Australia. RICHARD J. HUGGETT is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Manchester, England. He studied geography at University College London, both as an undergraduate and postgraduate. After a brief spell as a geography teacher at the Haberdashers’ Aske’s School, Elstree, he moved to his current post. His research interests include catastrophism, neodiluvialism, geoecology, mathematical modelling in the environmental and physical geographical sciences, and the history of ideas in the environmental and physical geographical sciences. MIKE ROBINSON has been a Lecturer in Geography at the University of Manchester, England, since 1970. He gained his BA from the University of Leicester in 1963 and his PhD from the Australian National University in 1967. He has been at the University of Manchester since 1967: to 1968 as a Demonstrator in Geography, from 1968 to 1970 as an Assistant Lecturer, and from 1970 as a Lecturer. From 1985 to 1987 he held a visiting appointment as a part-time Lecturer in Geography at De La Salle College. In 1993, with Dr D.W.Shim well, he was responsible for the establishment of the Palaeoecological Research Unit at the University of Manchester.